Shinobi in a World of Souls
by NaruKashi-kun
Summary: Naruto has just defeated Madara, but in the process, blasts himself out of the Shinobi Dimension. He reawakes in Karakura Town, as a young teenager. A certain cat soon finds him and when Naruto suddenly dies, is taken to Soul Society, and becomes involved in the events revolving around one Kurosaki Ichigo. Strong Naruto/Mokuton Naruto, Begins before Turn Back the Pendulum.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Bleach, this is a work of pure fanfiction! Unfortunately...

Author Note: Yes, I know I need to update, but I am terrible at convincing myself to hold deadlines, and I have gotten a recent addiction to the world of Bleach, however, I could not leave Naruto behind, so i took him with me!

* * *

Naruto gritted his teeth as he and the remainder of the survivors from the force stayed behind cover as a group of undead shinobi fired salvoes of Fireballs towards their position.

"Move!" Naruto barked to his men when the fire stopped, and they sped from cover, slicing their way through the formerly dead shinobi that stood in their way.

_"Shit! If we don't manage to get to Madara soon and eliminate him, the diversionary army is screwed, sixty percent in reserves or not," _Naruto thought grimly as he sliced his katana through the body of a former Suna shinobi.

The initial plan had been that an army creates a diversion, Naruto and his assassination force eliminate Madara, and the reserves come in and finish the mop up of the enemy forces. However the entire plan was betting on the thought that if Madara died, the last of the Zetsu and the undead shinobi would fall and die without needing to be killed by conventional methods. Madara would have used the revived Juubi, but Naruto had managed to reseal the damn thing within the moon, and with the Akatsuki gone, Madara didn't have the strength necessary to revive it again. As such, it was down to a war of bloody attrition, and the shinobi were losing.

"Naruto!" Naruto's head snapped up to Shikamaru, who had called his name. "We'll hold them off, you go on ahead and take that son of a bitch out!" Naruto nodded, leaving Shikamaru and the remainder of his force to die on the battlefield, holding off hordes of undead shinobi.

Shikamaru was the last of his friends he had left, and now it was just him. Many had been taken out in the devastating shock attacks during the early parts of the war, and the remainder fell in battle buying time for others to complete the mission they had been assigned. In fact, of the old generations, there were only Naruto and Shikamaru, everyone having been replaced, and the two of them were regarded as more ancient beings of power rather than humans like the rest.

Naruto wiped his mind of the memories, charging up the hillside, dancing through all in his path and killing them quickly. He was climbing up towards the remnants of Madara's statue at the Valley of the End.

_"Valley of the End indeed,"_ Naruto thought bitterly. The valley itself had turned into one massive crater, and even now the diversionary army was stuck in the middle of it, taking a heavy amount of Jutsu fire from three sides. Naruto stopped for a moment as he caught his breath once more before he charged up the final summit, taking Madara's guards by surprise.

"My, my, if it isn't the little fox," Madara said as he watched Naruto slay his guards. "Well, someone has turned into a vicious fighter. You know, I am kind of impressed by the tenacity that you've shown in leading your forces," Madara said conversationally as he turned back to watch the destruction of the diversionary army.

"I will kill you Madara!" Naruto said, speeding towards the traitorous Uchiha with a Rasengan in hand.

"Shinra Tensai." Madara said in a bored tone, not even looking at the blonde. He didn't see the blonde that had flown at him turn into a puff of smoke.

Naruto crept up behind Madara; at the beginning of the final summit he had made a Shadow Clone and made it take his place. Meanwhile he had gone around the hillside and climbed up the remaining statue, staying behind Madara. Naruto had finally learned how to make sure that his chakra presence was constantly unnoticeable, although had had to use some Fuuinjutsu seals to do so. Madara also didn't have the advantage that Nagato had exploited; he didn't use the six paths in separate bodies, so he couldn't use them to watch out for his back.

"Wind Release: Rasengan!" Naruto spoke from right behind Madara before he plunged the Rasengan through Madara's back and into his heart. Naruto's heart soared: they had finally done it, Madara was dead and they had won. He missed Madara speaking quietly under his breath, and the next thing he knew there was a swirl of chakra and both Madara and Naruto were pulled into the center.

Naruto was sent spinning very fast before he felt a very hard impact all over the back of his body. He opened his eyes and saw blurred treetops above him before he blacked out.

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, the hilltop that Naruto and Madara had formerly been on had undergone a mini-implosion. The massive battle that had been taking place in the valley below had come to halt; the undead shinobi had all disappeared, no longer bound to Madara. The White Zetsu, although still alive and killing, were leaderless and the reinforcements had quickly moved in and mopped up, killing the remainder. Shikamaru looked down upon the massive crater the was the former Valley of the End with his eight remaining men and sighed.

_"Well Naruto, seems like you did the impossible once more, although it was your last. Perhaps now the last of our generation can finally be at peace from war and watch as we rebuild,"_ Shikamaru thought, lighting a cigarette. The forty year old Nara turned and led his men back down the hillside slowly, lost in memories of dead friends.

* * *

**"KIT! WAKE UP DAMMIT! GET THAT BLONDE HEAD OF YOURS INTO GEAR!"** Naruto heard as he awoke to find himself in his mindscape.

"Can you be quiet Kurama? I just woke up," Naruto said before getting up and walking slowly over to the front of the cage where Kurama was contained.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked.

**"It seems that our current situation is well out of our depth, Naruto. Madara did one of the worst possible things when you hit him with that Rasengan. He used Kamui to try and teleport out of the way, but by that time your technique had already hit him. The chakra of both techniques collided and melded, causing the hilltop to implode. However you, by some luck and me using my chakra to shield your body, seem to have broken the laws of reality and been sent to another dimension."** Kurama said.

"What? How?" Naruto was, rather understandably, aghast at this.

**"I do not know, but it seems that the melding of the chakra has done this. It would be almost impossible to recreate the effects and try and get back to our world. If you do not believe me, look up at the chakra above our heads."** Kurama answered, flicking a tail to gesture up at the pipes above them.

Naruto looked up to see that the pipes were smaller then they had been, but not by much. The thing that caught his attention though was the fact that there was no longer any chakra filling them, but a different substance instead.

**"I do not know what the substance is, but it feels similar to Yin chakra in the fact that it is spiritually based, but I do not know much else,"** Kurama remarked.

"Wait a second, if your chakra is gone to this substance, then how are you still here?" Naruto asked, looking at the bars of the cage, unable to see Kurama.

**"I didn't disappear, per say, but I did change,"** Kurama said, before moving forward into Naruto visible sight. Kurama had shrunk, now only around twice Naruto's height, and the orange red fur had become black with streaks of silver. The red eyes had also changed to a deep forest green. The fox rapidly moved on, giving Naruto no time to remark on its new appearance.

**"Anyway, we do not know what the outside is like nor how long it will be before you wake up, so you might want to spend your time in here training and experimenting with this new substance."** Kurama said.

"Uh, I don't have any equipment to train with," Naruto said.

**"It's your mindscape, idiot, you have control over how it looks and how you can use it,"** Kurama said before it began settling down to sleep. Naruto wondered why he hadn't thought of that before and set to work.

* * *

Naruto had quickly figured out that although he was still able to do Ninjutsu with the new energy substance, it seemed a little different from before, requiring different ways of molding it than before. He found that many of the hand signs he had learned as a shinobi molded it differently from what they had in his dimension. He decided that he was going to have to learn how to mold the energy through mental capacities, but found this easier in his mindscape as he was able to physically watch the shaping of the substance. He also changed the area outside of Kurama's cage into a training ground, having one part being an open, flat area stocked with weapons and the like and the rest being divided up into various areas with different training environments.

Naruto suddenly remembered the training ability of Kage Bunshin, and excitedly began to experiment with creating them using the new energy. This way he could also estimate just how much of this substance he had in him as well. Thankfully for Naruto, the fact that Kage Bunshin only required one hand seal allowed him to summon around fifty clones with the new substance, but it drained around two thirds of his current amount.

"Damn, either my reserve for this is vastly smaller than it used to be for chakra, or creating Kage Bunshin is a lot harder with this substance," Naruto gasped, as he collapsed to the floor.

**"I presume it a little of both, as your reserve seems slightly smaller, but also add in the fact that this energy doesn't seem to have as much physical essence as chakra did,"** Kurama commented.

Naruto sent the clones off to do a various number of things: ten to do tree climbing, ten to water walking, ten to do Taijutsu Katas, ten to do Kenjutsu Katas and the final ten to continue with experimentation. He ordered them to dispel one from each group every half hour before he went to sleep, well, as much as he could with Kage Bunshin exercising in his mindscape.

* * *

Naruto woke up and saw that he was no longer in the mindscape but rather in the depths of a forest. Naruto looked at the treetops above his head before he moved his head slowly to either side, checking his surroundings. Naruto sat up slowly, the joints in his upper back cracking loudly due to misuse.

"Well, first priority, is to get something to eat while trying to find a nearby town or other to figure where I am. From there, I'll need to find out as much information as possible on this world," Naruto spoke out loud before he began trying to decide a direction to go in.

He looked up and saw a hint of smoke to his west, according to the sun, and so headed towards it. To him, it didn't really matter what it was, it could undoubtedly point him in the right direction. Naruto moved towards the house, while Kurama revealed something else that had happened during their little dimension jump.

**"Ah, Naruto, I have two other things you might want to know,"** Kurama began.

"What is it Kurama?" Naruto asked as he jumped down some rocks.

**"Well, first off, you seem to have been turned back into a twelve year old,"** Kurama said, causing Naruto to look down at his body.

"Holy Shit! How didn't I notice this earlier! Ugh, wait a minute that means I'm short again, dammit!" Naruto said loudly, before he calmed down enough to ask what the second thing was.

**"Well, you know how the revived Orochimaru captured you for a few months before that Shikamaru kid came and rescued you and how during that time he put you through the experiments that Yamato guy had to go through as a child?"**

"Yeah, but it failed, I gained Water and Earth as chakra natures alongside my original Wind, the experiment to get me to get Mokuton failed. The bastard had thought that since my dad was descended directly from Hashirama that if he ran the experiment on me I would gain the Mokuton." Naruto said, beginning to see where this was going.

**"Well it seems that your new substance has the ability to control Wood; from what I can see in here, the substance has green and brown streaks running through it occasionally, signifying a chakra nature. It also feels like that of the Shodaime's: rather peaceful. However there is a problem; there seems to be some sort of lock on it, and I have no clue about how to unlock it."** Kurama said, dozing off to sleep after he was done.

On the outside Naruto was shocked, he had Mokuton as an affinity. Naruto looked up amongst the wilderness, now beginning to slow down and take his time.

_"Perhaps I can set up some sort of Hideout for me here in this forest, that'd be nice, but I should probably only do so when I am sure that there's no place for me in this town I am looking for…Dammit! If only I could remember Yamato's technique for building a house out of wood, and have the Mokuton free,"_ Naruto thought as he walked through the forest.

* * *

Naruto soon came across the house he had been heading towards before he realized that the people of this land might not speak his language. As such Naruto decided to stay in hiding while he sent a Kage Bunshin forward to talk with the owners of the house in an attempt to receive directions.

When the Kage Bunshin dispersed, Naruto learned that he didn't know their language, and the man that had answered the door thought the Kage Bunshin was just messing around. Naruto sighed before he retreated into the forest a little and created six Kage Bunshin.

"Alright, we don't know where the nearest town is, but we do know that there is a road like path, and that must lead to somewhere. Therefore three will go down one way, and three down the other while I stay here and start setting up a habitable space in the forest. Okay, go," Naruto said, sending the Kage Bunshin off.

He then turned and began walking through the forest, eager to see what it contained.

* * *

Later that day Naruto had managed to erect a temporary shelter using planks of wood that he had cut from a tree using his Wind chakra. He had also managed to snag a rabbit for dinner as well, along with finding a fast flowing creek that ran nearby. If there was one definite thing that all learned during the war, it was how to live off the land, for teams would often have to be left stranded in enemy territory and have to make their way back to safety.

_"Mind you, this would be a nice place to have a house or something, I can build it with Kage Bunshin and use Genjutsu to conceal it…Dammit, I need to find out if I can even use Genjutsu with this new substance thing,"_ Naruto thought.

* * *

Naruto's brain immediately focused on the information transferred to him when he felt that one of the six Kage Bunshin dispel. He knew that the three Kage Bunshin heading the other way would turn and head to the destination that the other team had been at. The remaining two Kage Bunshin of the team that had found the town would immediately go into the town as far as they could and take note of the important landmarks.

"So…Karakura Town huh? And apparently there are ghosts," Naruto said out loud before he turned away to begin cooking the rabbit he had caught and skinned earlier.


	2. Chapter 2: World, a Cat and Soul Society

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto, this a work of pure fanfiction!

Naruto walked through the streets of Karakura town, not talking to anyone and not particularly heading anywhere, just familiarizing himself with the vibe. Meanwhile he had fifty clones, all under Henges, at the nearest library, reading up on Karakura town itself, along with history, the local language, and pretty much anything else he could get his hands on. Unfortunately he had to create fifty clones each day because the library wasn't open after 6 pm at night. However he had an idea that could work but he was unsure of the security surrounding the area, so he hadn't put it into motion yet.

So far Naruto had been living in the forest that he had arrived to this dimension in, living off the wild game he or his Kage Bunshin managed to catch. However he was eager to see if he could manage to buy a house within the town itself. For one it would make it look less suspicious to others and it would also allow him to be closer to the center of events and this way he wouldn't have to get his Kage Bunshin to go to the town at different speeds due to different Henges.

But Naruto's main problem at the moment was money, he had no money to pay for anything, so until he found out a way to get some he was stuck to either wild game or stealing resources and supplies.

_"Actually, I could just steal some money. It would have to be small amounts from several sources so no one will notice, but I'm sure I could manage it."_ Naruto thought, now trying to find the wealthiest section of the city to check.

* * *

Naruto soon managed to read his way through the local library, due to his Kage Bunshin, and was now one of the most knowledgeable 12 year olds on the planet. He had stolen money from some of the wealthier people in the area, and saved up the majority of it, using only small amounts to buy what was necessary. He was still living in the set up he had within the forest, but was getting close to being able to buy his own house and pay off the mortgage immediately.

In other news he had finally managed to work out how to do most of his old Ninjutsu with the new substance.

He still hadn't come up with a name for the thing because he wanted to see if there was one in a mention of the library. As soon as he had worked out how to apply a basic Genjutsu he had put one around his little base within the forest, keeping people away from it.

Naruto had managed to become friends with many of the ghosts he saw around the town, although they only seemed to last a few weeks before they disappeared. He had also seen a few spirits running around in black with swords at their hips, but they always seemed to be able to lose him when he tried to follow. There had been several times when Naruto had to dodge the efforts of some policemen who seemed to insist that he belonged in school even though he didn't have any sort of uniform on at the time.

* * *

Shihōin Yoruichi, Captain of the 2nd Division and Commander of the Omnitsukidō, was leaping across the buildings of Karakura town. She had received a report from scout team that had been investigating a small group of Hollows. The mission itself was fine, a squad from the 11th Division had been sent in and wiped them out without casualties, but it was an attachment at the end of the report that had caught her attention. Her scout team had been going across Karakura town when they caught an unknown Reiryoku signature close by. They went to investigate and saw that it wasn't a Hollow or another spiritual being, but instead a twelve year old boy. This would have been normal, as humans occasionally had Reiryoku, but this boy seemed to have an amount equal to an ordinary Shinigami, which was saying something, as they had an usually high amount compared to humans. That and the report mentioned he seemed to have some experience actually using the power, which should be impossible for a human without something to activate it. The squad had followed the kid, noting down the regular times he would be at certain places, so someone could follow him up later, like her.

Yoruichi went the place that her squad had encountered the boy, before sighing; it seemed he wasn't here, so she would have to wait on the roofs of one of the streets that they said he commonly walked down.

Yoruichi kept her eye out for a twelve year old with spiky blonde hair and blue eyes as she settled down on a rooftop and thought about her training schedule for her protégé Suì-Fēng.

Yoruichi's ears suddenly caught a young voice below her and she looked down to see spiky blonde hair.

_"Gotcha,"_ She thought, grinning.

"Who the hell did those bastards think they are? Stupid, I mean honestly they were wearing facemasks and were covered in black clothes, and they think that isn't suspicious? If they want to fit in and not be fucking obvious they should use the clothes that ordinary people do. And don't even get me started on those stupid idiots that run around in black robes and wear swords," The kid muttered under his breath.

_"So he can see us, which means he can see members of the spiritual world. Mind you the fact that this kid knew that my scout members were following him is dodgy. Obviously this kid isn't what he seems," _Yoruichi thought as she followed the kid's path along the rooftops. Yoruichi didn't realize that a number of the people behind her were actually Kage Bunshin and could see her rather clearly walking along the rooftop.

Yoruichi followed the apparently unsuspecting Naruto out of the town and into the surrounding woodland, deciding to change into cat form at the edge of the forest. She had been following him through the forest for at least half an hour when the kid stopped.

"My name is Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, and you made a mistake when you were following me in the town, little cat," the kid spoke, shocking Yoruichi before he disappeared, shocking her further. Yoruichi cautiously stepped out into the open, before turning back to a human and putting her clothes back on once more. She then sensed the small amount of Reiryoku in front of her, making her pause.

_"What is it there for? No… No…Ah, he's using the Reiryoku to hide this area from visible sight, so if I step forward, then I should be able to see it. Very clever though, using an illusion,"_ she thought before moving forward cautiously.

She stepped forward, revealing to her Naruto's campsite, although it looked more like a web of interconnecting tree-houses than anything else. What caught her attention immediately though was the fact that there seemed to be multiple Naruto's racing around and doing various tasks. Some were building a staircase up to one of the tree-houses, others were collecting firewood, and yet others were hauling basic living needs, such as clothes and furniture, up to the main tree-house in the center. A clone tried to walk past her, obviously going hunting by the look of the bow and arrow set he was carrying, but she stopped him with a hand briefly and asked him where the real one was.

"The boss is over there," the Naruto-lookalike said, pointing to a Naruto that was setting down quietly on a basic wooden bench and having a small bowl of cooked rice. Yoruichi walked over to him, and stood in front of him until he looked up at her inquisitively.

"Yes?" Naruto asked, acting completely innocent. Yoruichi had to admit; he did have the wide-eyed innocent look down to a tee.

"Don't act innocent in front of me, who and what the hell are you?" Yoruichi asked, standing over the boy.

"I am Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, as I said before, and I am the former Hokage of Konohagakure, Leader of the Allied Shinobi Forces, and last of the Uzumaki, Namikaze and Senju clans," Naruto said.

"I understood none of that," Yoruichi said, while Naruto looked unsurprised.

"It will be easier if I show you," Naruto said, leaping up and putting his hand on her temple before she could react.

* * *

The two of the appeared in what appeared to be little more than a void of white space.

"What the hell did you do?" Yoruichi said, punching Naruto in the face.

"Ouch, ah, anyway, I brought you here because now we can share memories of relevant information, which will allow me to explain who and what I am easier. After that I will give you a chance to explain who and what you are," Naruto said, before he waved a hand, causing two chairs and a plasma screen to appear. Another wave of his hand and a CD appeared next to the television. Yoruichi hid her surprise and sat down, inquisitive to learn about who this person was.

Naruto put the loaded the CD into the TV and when a picture of Konohagakure came up he began his story.

"I was born on the tenth of October, around forty years ago in the city of Konohagakure, or the Village Hidden in the Leaves…"

* * *

"… And then I sensed your men following me, and decided to let them, as it would probably allow me to be directed or taken to a person of more importance, which turned out to be you," Naruto finished.

"So you're actually around forty years old, you fought against something with the power of a god, and you're actually from a completely different dimension?" Yoruichi couldn't keep the disbelief out of her voice, making Naruto cringe slightly.

"I can prove it," he said, causing Yoruichi to raise her eyebrow.

"How?" She asked

"I can show you the Ninjutsu I adapted with…what was it you called it…Reiryoku? But it will have to wait until you explain what is going on with the weird people in black running around with katanas." Naruto said, causing the Captain to scowl.

"Fine," was all she said before Naruto taught her own to create her own CD of relevant memories. She loaded it up before beginning her own explanation of the current spiritual world.

"I am what is called a Shinigami, we defend and guide the spirits of the deceased…" Yoruichi began.

* * *

"Damn, that's both frustratingly easy to understand and yet not at all," Naruto remarked when she had finished her story.

"Yes well, the various causes of the spiritual beings in this world are difficult to comprehend, but it's not particularly relevant to you. I only really told you because you need to know the difference between them so you don't die," Yoruichi said, looking at her fingernails.

"I'm sure I can help you fight them," Naruto said, frowning in confusion.

"No, you can't, as only spiritual beings can destroy other spiritual beings. Sure you can fight Hollows in your physical body, but you can't kill them, you would need to either have someone on site with you constantly to push your spiritual body out of your normal one, or die, get sent to Soul Society and become a Shinigami," Yoruichi said.

"Well that sucks, I mean, if I did die, then sure, I would become a Shinigami, but I don't want to have to die to do it. Along with the fact that you said that a soul's memory is wiped when it is sent to Soul Society, which means I would remember nothing of my current life." Naruto said, pouting in annoyance.

"Well, then perhaps you could get someone who is already within Soul Society to find you before you go to the Shinigami Academy and return your memories to you," Yoruichi mused, obviously waiting to see if Naruto would take her up on the obvious offer.

"Hmm, that is a good idea, and I am sure I can find a way to contain a set of memories, but surely this person within Seireitei would have some terms of their own in this agreement, or are they doing this out of the good of their own heart?" Naruto said, mouth twitching in amusement in the game they were playing.

"Oh, of course they would. I expect that the person, knowing of your past memories and abilities would expect the highest standards and achievements within your career, indeed, they may want you to even become a leader for a generation of probably some of the best Shinigami coming through. After all, from your memories, one could definitely say that you have the experience," Yoruichi, making Naruto sigh.

"Really, you want me to be the undefeatable leader of the Shinigami? I'm likely going to be somewhere near the top anyway. I held back during my early years of my former life, and many suffered for it, so I definitely won't be holding anything back this time," Naruto said, leaning back into his chair.

"Well that's good, because I want the praise for training one of the best Shinigami in history," Yoruichi smirked, making Naruto sigh once more.

"Well, I think it's time we went back to the real world," Naruto said, not waiting for Yoruichi's answer.

* * *

"Gah, I'm still nauseous from that thing," Yoruichi said, fifteen minutes later as she was sitting down on the bench next to Naruto. He had forgotten to mention the nausea that came for first time users of his memory transfer technique, and Naruto had taken a few hits from Yoruichi that he probably deserved for it.

"Well, you going to back to go back to Soul Society now?" Naruto asked as he gave her a chicken kebab. Although he had bought modern technology such as a fridge, he couldn't get them to work without electricity, which would require paying for power lines to be connected to this hideout. And that would give everything away, as he was after all trying to keep this place a secret, not that ordinary people would see the tree-house structure anyway.

"Nah, they don't expect me back until the end of the week, which is four days away, so instead I am going to spend time giving you some advice on Kidō. I can see that you're not really one for incantations, but we will use them the first time you're learning them so you can get used to the spell." Yoruichi said with her eyes closed in an attempt to stop the nausea.

"Good, during that time I can also try and find a way to engrave my memories into an object to take back with you. By the way, I think I only really need to use the incantation a few times before I should be able to do it just saying the name of the spell. I had to learn how Reiryoku is physically manipulated to relearn many of my Shinobi techniques, therefore it should be a matter of paying attention to the shaping of Reiryoku itself and I should be able to do the technique full power without the incantation." Naruto said, shocking Yoruichi with the simplicity of his argument.

"I can't believe no one ever thought of mastering Kidō that way, it makes perfect sense! Mind you that bought up another subject we can briefly look at, which is Hoho. You have that flash technique, but from what I could see from your memories, it needs markers, which is a big giveaway. We have technique that is similar, but we don't need those, thus it would be more effective," Yoruichi said, scowling as she tried to think of a way to teach all this stuff to Naruto all at once.

"Don't worry, just show me how to do the stuff and by the time I get to the academy I'll have mastered it. Mind you, from what you said about your Shunpo technique thing, there is one huge advantage that my Hiraishin has: it isn't a movement technique, it's someone being transported through the space-time continuum. This means that it won't set off any alarms or the like, and can bypass dimensional barriers, if the dimensions are relatively well connected to this one." Naruto said confidently, causing the eyes of the female captain to widen.

"How is- Actually I don't want to know, it'll just get confusing," Yoruichi said before she turned back into a cat again.

* * *

Next morning Yoruichi was up before Naruto, readying a place for them to begin their Kidō practice. She had set up a few dummies towards one end of a relatively flat area, and was now simply waiting for Naruto to wake up.

She watched in confusion as Naruto, dressed in a simple set of t-shirt with jeans sent five clones off before walking over to her.

"They're going to earn some money," he said simply in reply to her questioning look. Yoruichi sighed, having guessed how he was likely earning said money before she guided him to the field she had set up.

"Alright, so we'll start off with Kidō. First off, Kidō has three main classifications for its techniques. Bakudō techniques are those that have purposes on a battlefield other than causing direct damage to the enemy, and typically puts the user in a better tactical position if they succeed. It is a very broad spell range, comprising of spells that block, bind the enemy or seal. The first two are the main uses as sealing enemies is very difficult and require a lot of time and preparation. This is an example of one: Bakudo #1. Sai!" Yoruichi explained pushing her arm towards a Naruto clone with the index and middle fingers pointing up and palm facing towards the clone. Naruto watched with interest as the clone's arms snapped together behind its back and locked them together. No matter how much the clone tried, falling on its back and trying to bring his lings through the loop created by his hands, he was unable to undo the spell.

Yoruichi told him to try it, telling him to use his Reiryoku and 'fire' it at the opponent through the hand while imagining the opponent's arms snapping together. Another clone was bound, cursing his creator furiously, before Naruto dispelled the two of them before creating seven more clones, two to replace the tow he had just dispelled, and five more to go practice the technique somewhere else.

Four days later Naruto waved goodbye as Yoruichi disappeared in the city to return to Soul Society. During the time she had been teaching him he had managed to learn much of what she showed him, although he had leant more towards Bakudō techniques and Shunpo as he already had a lot of offensive techniques. He had also been very annoyed to find out that Hiraishin, although it had the potential to work, needed to be approached in a different manner from what it was in the Elemental Nations. Why, because he had forgotten that in movement techniques in the Elemental Nations, the physical half of chakra had played an enormous role. He was already close to being adequate with his Bakudō spells on a stationary target, but he needed to make sure that he could also use it on moving targets and different situations.

A second set of Naruto's memories had been placed within a seal upon a circular amulet that Yoruichi wore upon her neck. The memories within would be safe from anyone within this dimension, as the seal used Fuuinjutsu, which he was pretty sure no one else knew. However the memories within had a safety seal built in for fifteen years, which meant, that if they weren't transferred to someone or another object, then after fifteen years the memories would begin to degrade. Honestly Naruto would have built for longer, but the amount of Reiryoku he would have had to use would have brought down a small army of Hollows upon them, regardless of Genjutsu.

They had also had that fight of theirs, and Yoruichi had been forced to admit that Naruto's skill and experience that he had shown during left no other explanation other than the one he had initially given to her. She had no rational explanation for how good his Hakuda sparring with her was; he kept up with her speedwise unless she used her Shunpo, and the efficiency of his fighting style spoke of many years facing against many different opponents. He also impressed this on her when she saw how easily Naruto went about learning the various Kidō spells.

* * *

It had been a few months since Yoruichi left, and Naruto had been helping the Shinigami that were assigned to Karakura town by maiming the Hollows that he came across. So far he had taken down around thirty Hollows, but Naruto knew that they were small fry compared to some of the Hollows he remembered seeing in Yoruichi's memories. Naruto was walking through the streets of Karakura town at night, simply on the watch for Hollows and Shinigami, when a Hollow burst through a wall to his right, chasing after a Plus that seemed to have been around thirty when he had died. The Hollow was tall, around the size of an average house, and seemed to have taken after arachnids in its shape. The creature stopped and sniffed the air, before turning its head in Naruto direction.

"Ah, finally one with stronger spirit than the rest, someone worthy to become my prey," it growled, before it moved toward the blonde.

"I've always hated spiders, they're the bloody creepiest things," Naruto said, before he made a Rasengan with his Reiatsu, causing it to be a deep green color, like an emerald. He charged forward, dodging the legs and pincers of the Hollow and slamming his Rasengan straight into the Hollow's mask, causing it to start shrieking in pain. Naruto spun around, reinforcing Reiatsu to the front of his shins and the top of his feet, before he began to take out the Hollow's legs, crippling its movement. The legs each fell with sickening crunches as Naruto's legs smashed into them at high speed, and Naruto was forced to roll from under the beast as it collapsed onto its stomach. Naruto was about to leave and let the Shinigami kill it off, but before he could do so the twin pincers of the Hollow detached from the rest of its body, only massive veins connecting them. The two pincers pierced straight through him, one through his stomach and the other his chest. Naruto's body was lifted up and thrown bodily by the pincers off to one side, and smashed against a wall. A few moments later Naruto's spirit appeared next to his broken body, however it looked very different to his body, as it appeared as Naruto was during the opening stages of the Fourth Shinobi War. He had black combat boots and black pants, and a light grey sleeveless t-shirt. Over that he had a black combat vest, but it had been altered to have a wider collar and black fabric hanging down, essentially forming a cross between a combat vest and a trench coat. There was silver lacing around the edges of the trench coat/vest cross and the Konohagakure symbol emblazoned on the back in pure white, sticking out. He also had fingerless combat gloves on with steel plates on the back, and leather armor pads strapped around his upper arms.

Naruto's spirit watched as the Hollow slowly dragged itself towards him. He couldn't run, as he was bound by his Chain of Fate to his body, which he could tell wasn't going anywhere in a while.

_"Ugh, I can't believe I got overconfident, now what to do to get over this soon-to-be-messy situation," _Naruto thought, keeping calm.

**"Kit! You'll need to cut the chain!"** Kurama called to him as he watched events from the seal.

_"You know what that means, right?"_ Naruto thought quietly back to the Bijuu within him.

**"Yes, it means we'll never live in that physical body again,"** Kurama replied, not exactly certain what the problem was.

_"Yes, but we don't know what will happen to you when a Shinigami sends us to Soul Society,"_ Naruto thought sadly. Kurama was his only link to his former life.

**"Uh, Naruto, the only reason I am able to talk to you now is because I am connected to your soul, not your body. Your father put the seal on your soul,"** Kurama said in the silence that followed Naruto's statement.

_"So that means that you'll still be there in Soul Society?"_ Naruto asked, and when he received Kurama's affirmative he created a Rasengan and grinded straight through it.

* * *

Lisa Yadomaru's eyes bugged out when he saw that the kid had decided to break his own Chain of Fate. She had been there from the beginning of the fight, and had watched as the now deceased human had gone up against the Hollow.

_"This kid has got to be completely crazy, destroying his Chain of Fate like that. Mind you he's obviously a fighter, one only needs to look at his spirit for that,"_ She thought, aghast. She decided to watch as the kid faced off against the Hollow once more but step in if he was about to be devoured.

* * *

Naruto had a Rasengan in each hand, sprinting straight towards the Hollow, and the Hollow, although severely injured, sent our his pincers to kill him. Naruto veered off to one side, making sure that one of the pincers would arrive before the other. Naruto dodged the first pincer, slipping in between the two, and slamming a Rasengan into the massive fleshy vein connecting it to the Hollow. Where there had been a weapon before was just a massive tentacle flailing about, and spurting blood everywhere, not that Naruto cared, as he had moved on and did the same thing to the second one. The Hollow, rather understandably was screaming in pain, as it pulled the vein back inside its body, leaving two open holes where the pincers had been. Naruto jumped high into the sky, going higher than a two story building, before he started to come back down, only this time his fist seemed to be covered in lightning. In one smooth movement Naruto landed just behind the Hollows head and drove his lightning covered fists straight through the creature's head. Naruto pulled his arm out of the Hollow grimly before walking over and sitting down next to his former body.

Naruto seemed to realize the difference in looks between his actual body and his visible soul all of a sudden, and frowned. Then his spirit began to change, and his dress became much simpler. It was all black, he just had a simple vest, and a bandolier of small pouches slanted around his waist. The spirit looked younger itself too, probably around eleven years of age.

* * *

Lisa looked over the new look that the kid's spirit had, and she decided it looked most akin to an assassin rather than anything else, especially with the simple black handle of what she guessed was a chokuto sticking out over his shoulder.

_"Unusual, the spirits of most kids reflect how their body looks in real life, but his doesn't, it looks more like the uniform of someone about to go into a warzone,"_ Lisa reflected before she jumped down, preparing to cleanse the Hollow before giving Soul Burial to the kid.

After she had cleansed the Hollow and sent it off to Soul Society, she turned to the kid, and paused; it seemed that some of the Hollow's Reiryoku had leaked into the kid's body when he had been stabbed, and a small amount of it remained in the kid's own Reiryoku. Lisa shrugged before pressing the hilt of her sword to the kid's forehead and sent him off to Soul Society.

Such a small amount of Hollow Reiryoku mixing with the soul's Reiryoku was unlikely to cause any harm.

* * *

The first thing Naruto was he was standing in a very long line with a lot of other people that he didn't know. They seemed to be moving forward very slowly, but towards what, he was unsure. He could see other lines, just as long, a few meters either side of him. With strange men and women in black robes with swords at their sides patrolling the gaps in between the lines.

_"Where am I? What am I doing here?"_ He thought, franticly beginning to panic, but all of a sudden he just knew that panicking would not help matters at all. And with that he resolved to do what he was told until he worked out what was going on.

An hour and a half later he had moved forward around four hundred meters, and Naruto's stomach was growing louder with each passing second, but Naruto stayed silent, as no one else seemed to have his problem. However one of the passing guards seemed to have heard his stomach and gave him some bread, grinning all the while.

Eventually he managed to reach the front of the seemingly endless queue, and there was a man at a desk there that gave him a piece of paper and told him that he was to live. Apparently he was to live in District 64 in East Rukongai along with everyone else that received their papers at the same time as him across all the lines waiting to get in. He read the paper, and saw that is held information about him. Apparently he was eight. Naruto laughed, he didn't know why, he just did. Then he figured out why he was laughing; apparently they thought he was going to live nice and docile.

Like that would ever happen.

Naruto never saw the Omnitsukidō member on the nearest rooftop nod to himself slightly before he ran off to report to his Commander.

* * *

"Yoruichi-sama, there have been reports that the person you asked to be watched out for in the lines of the dead has been seen. He has been assigned to live in District 64 in East Rukongai," Yoruichi's protégé, Suì-Fēng, reported as she walked through the door. Yoruichi looked up.

"Excellent, well then, let's go have a talk with a certain kid then, shall we?" Yoruichi said, grinning as she threw her captains haori on.


	3. Chapter 3: Memories, Kuchiki, Exams

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto

Yoruichi walked out of her office, a squad of Omnitsukidō members and Suì-Fēng accompanying her.

"Captain, where are you going?" Uruhara's voice called out from one side.

"I am going to make a visit to a good friend in the Rukongai," She called back over her shoulder without stopping.

"Oh, can I come along?" His voice called from behind her, and Yoruichi nodded, knowing that he would come along anyway.

The seven of them made a bit a spectacle in the Seireitei, but once they were out into the Rukongai, the Omnitsukidō squad took to the rooftops, leaving the three of them to walk, visibly alone and unprotected.

"So who is this friend that we're visiting?" Kisuke Uruhara, the head of the Omnitsukidō's Detention Squad, asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"He's a kid, now about eight years old according to the information that was given at the Entrance booth. Goes by the name of Uzumaki Naruto, and from a different dimension than the current living world," Yoruichi said, gaining questioning looks from the other two.

"So what is so special about him, Yoruichi-sama?" Suì-Fēng asked.

"He has the potential to be the deadliest Shinigami in history. In his dimension, there were a number of different groups of people, called Shinobi, which were in popular demand. They were trained from the age of six to be the most efficient killers possible. Anyway, whether he wants to tell you more is up to him, but I'll just say this, when we met on Earth, we had a Hakuda sparring match and he kept up with me the entire way, until I used Shunpo, which was cheating. And at the time he was twelve, and apparently that wasn't his best skill" Yoruichi said, shocking the other two.

They kept silent the rest of the way until when they were passing District 62 Uruhara spoke up.

"But wouldn't the fact that everyone has their memory wiped when a Shinigami uses Soul Burial on them destroy the significance of this completely?" The question made Suì-Fēng look at Yoruichi.

"Ah, that's true, unless somehow someone has the records of his entire memory to give him on the other side of the mind wipe," Yoruichi smirked. Uruhara and Suì-Fēng were silent for the rest of the time as they pondered about this piece of information, and the potential consequences.

"Ah, well, his house is actually relatively close to the entranceway so we won't have to walk for too long," Yoruichi smiled, and the trio walked for another ten minutes before stopping outside a relatively small house.

Yoruichi took her amulet off before she stepped up to the doorway and knocked. They heard the vague sound of shuffling feet coming towards the door, before the door opened and their stood Naruto in a simple white tunic.

"And what do you want?" Naruto asked in an even tone, making Kisuke grin while Suì-Fēng looked outraged.

"Naruto, I want you to put this on," Yoruichi said, holding the amulet out in front of him. Naruto shrugged before taking the medallion and putting it on, and as soon as he had Yoruichi put three fingers on the amulet and pushing Reiatsu into it. The seal on the medallion glowed light blue, and Naruto staggered for a moment before he collapsed.

"Well, I guess I should have expected that, around forty years of memories must be a pain to reabsorb," Yoruichi sighed before she picked the boy up and the three of them went inside the house.

* * *

Naruto woke up lying on a couch, and lay there for a moment before groaning; he had just been having a dream of, well, memories, when it had been in the early stages of the war, and Naruto, Sakura and Sai had just spent a day training peacefully. It had been the calm before the storm, when the uneasy silence had settled over the Elemental Nations as they waited for the Akatsuki to make their move.

_"I still remember how in the morning it was so cold, but at sundown it was really warm. I still remember sitting on top of the Hokage monument at sundown and watching as the light slowly disappeared from each part of Konoha,"_ Naruto thought reflectively before he heard the sound of faint footsteps. Naruto crept quietly over to one side of the door, wary of whoever was in his house. A man in black Shinigami clothes stopped at the doorway, and poked his head in. Naruto took in the pale-blond mop of hair and the grey eyes and remembered that he had been there with Yoruichi when she had given him the amulet.

"Well, Yoruichi wouldn't leave a person who would harm me in my house alone, so I guess I don't have to incapacitate you, but who are you?" Naruto spoke cautiously.

"Well, my name is Uruhara Kisuke. I'm already aware of yours, so there's no need to introduce yourself. I am the current Head of the Omnitsukidō's Detention Unit," Uruhara spoke cheerfully.

"Okay, well do you know information about entering the Shin'ō Academy?" Naruto said as he sat down on the couch he had been formerly lying on.

"Ah, eager to join the Academy already huh? Well unfortunately for you, a person has to be at least 9 years of age to enter, and currently you're eight. When's your birthday?" Uruhara spoke, lips twitching in amusement at the sudden scowl on Naruto's face.

"Oh, come on, now that's ridiculous, we started learning how to kill at the age of six in my world! And my birthday's October the tenth," Naruto said, before going off into muttering.

"Well, then you have about two months before you can enter. There is an entrance exam before that, but you wouldn't be old enough," Kisuke spoke.

"So there's an entrance exam huh? Well that gives me two months to prepare," Naruto said, getting up and going off to the kitchen. Uruhara just followed him.

"Why would you need two months to prepare? It's just an entrance exam," Kisuke said, rubbing the back of his head in slight confusion.

"I need two months to familiarize myself with this place, train, and also study how Shinigami traditionally fight. I am presuming that they do better in single combat rather than against multiple enemies, which will be my edge. I can do both equally well. The reason I am doing all this is because I want to totally boss everyone else in the academy and gain an accurate reading of my true skill compared to others." Naruto spoke, determination clear in his voice.

"Well, I suppose that is a worthy goal for the time being, but what about afterwards?" Kisuke asked.

"After that I will go up the ranks, and then try and change the current form of the Gotei 13. At the moment, from Yoruichi's explanation it is actually remarkably inefficient. For example: most of the work we do is in the Living World, but we have no forward bases set up. Up in the Seireitei, the leaders are cut off from the information coming in from the field itself, and so the judgments they make often would have undesired consequences. And then we have the fact that the majority of our stuff is controlled by Central 46, which is stupid, because the majority of them have no idea what they're talking about." Naruto spoke evenly, but with a tone of contempt in his voice. Uruhara had to admit his argument was sound, and was true, but had his doubts.

"Anyway, Yoruichi wanted you to meet her tomorrow at this location, apparently there is someone she wants you to meet. I don't know who it is, but it's probably someone high up, so get some respectable clothes. It was good to meet you; I must admit I am very eager to see just how far you will go." Uruhara spoke while giving Naruto a slip of paper. And with that Uruhara walked off, leaving Naruto on his own.

Naruto read the paper, and brightened up when he read that Yoruichi had decided to leave him with quite a bit of money, that she obviously didn't know how to spend. Naruto grabbed the money and went out, trying to find a clothes shop or something so he could buy some more suitable clothes.

* * *

Two hours later Naruto returned home with some clothes. While they weren't to the same standard as shinobi clothes, that was probably because these people didn't tend to put their lives on the line every second day. However these clothes seemed rather durable, and were darker than those he had been given in his house. As soon as he got home he put the new clothes away before getting changed into some of them, eager to get out of these white basic clothes. He had black pants, white sand shoes and a grey t-shirt. Over that he had a simple black zip-up vest and he also had a pair of black fingerless gloves. On the positive side he had managed to put in a request that the producer make something similar to his shinobi clothes, pockets and all. He had also managed to buy a simple backpack, which he put some food in before heading out. Knowing how slow these Shinigami seemed, he would probably need it. Naruto channeled a small amount of Reiryoku to his feet before running up the building to get to the roof. Out here in the more slum like districts there were no Shinigami patrolling the rooftops, although he could see several in the distance in the districts closer to the Seireitei.

Naruto went across the roofs to get closer to the main streets within the district, where he was sure he would soon come across a Shinigami patrol. He was getting closer to the marketplace that he had seen while the newcomers had been toured around by another member of the district that had been there for a number of years. All of a sudden he began to hear raised voices and shouts beyond that of the occasional seller shouting his wares.

Naruto sped up when he began to hear cries of pains; he was aware that this district was known for the occasional mob, but if it was a mob then there it would be far louder. His eyes narrowed in anger.

As he looked down he saw a fat man watching as several thugs were beating an older man, probably a father, if the teenage girl off to one side and being held hostage by two thugs was any judge.

"You think you can deny me! Me! You forget, you worm, that I am Marejirōsaburō Ōmaeda! I am the younger brother of Marechiyo Ōmaeda, the ninth seat of the Second Division! You are little but insects begging not to be crushed under my boot!" The now introduced Mare-something said in a raised voice as his thugs continued to beat the man. Naruto jumped down from the rooftops and landed gracefully before moving towards the beating.

He waited until the opportune moment to announce his presence, which actually appeared rather quickly; Fat Man had just announced that he must have now learned his lesson and that they would be taking the girl with them. One of the thugs went for one last punch and Naruto went just next to him and deflected the punch, keeping a hold of the wrist and elbowed the thug in the mouth, charging Reiatsu to his elbow to make sure he wouldn't injure himself.

There was a moment of shock and silence for everyone but Naruto, who had quickly moved on to the next thug and taken advantage of his shock. Before Fat Man knew it, Naruto had taken out three of his thugs, including the initial one, leaving with only four left, two of whom were preoccupied with holding the girl.

The other two charged for the blonde, and the onlookers gasped as one of them pulled out a knife. Naruto moved so they were coming towards him in a straight line, and when the first one lunged, Naruto dodged to one side slightly before burying his right shin into the thug's stomach. He spun around and the heel of his other foot smashed into the man's forehead, knocking him out.

The thug with the knife swung at Naruto wildly, and Naruto spotted a chance when the knife was swung diagonally from the mans right shoulder to past his left hip, and Naruto dodged, crouching. Naruto kicked out at the back of the thug's right knee, bringing him down and setting Naruto in a spin. The back of Naruto's right heel whipped around and rocketed into the man's back, slamming his face into the ground. Naruto grabbed the knife from the man's hand before pocketing it. He then turned his attention to Fat Man.

"Let the girl go!" Naruto declared. Fat Man laughed.

"Oh yeah? And what's to stop me from doing this?" He said, and gestured to one of his remaining two thugs, who brought a knife out and held it at the girl's neck.

In a flash, the girl was free and two Shinigami were standing over the now struggling thugs, and another holding her blade to Fat Man's neck. The last Shinigami was standing next to Naruto.

"You're coming with us," the female Shinigami with her sword pointed at Fat Man said. She used Sai to bind the man before she and the other two departed, taking their prisoners with them.

"That was a very good display of Hakuda, you should become a Shinigami," The remaining Shinigami next to Naruto said. He had shoulder length straight black hair, which was held back by a single kenseikan behind his left ear, and eyes that were a combination of black and purple.

"I am aiming to, I will be enrolling in two months," Naruto said, knowing what the kenseikan indicates. However he had never addressed figures of authority properly unless they had earned his respect, and he wasn't about to start now, in the afterlife or not.

"Why not as soon as possible?" The nobleman asked, overlooking the disrespect.

"Because I can't, one has to be older than nine to enter," The blonde replied gaining a shocked look from the man beside him.

"Are you saying you're not even nine yet?" The Shinigami asked, almost fearing the answer.

"I turn nine on the tenth of October," Naruto replied.

"Ah, that's pretty good timing actually, you turn nine two days before they begin the entrance exam again. Well, you may be the youngest student within the academy's history. By the way, my name is Kuchiki Sōjun," The newly introduced nobleman said.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto replied.

"Well, I must return to my team, goodbye," Sōjun coughed, and left. Naruto was left to deal with the remainder of the thugs, while at the same time dealing with the proclamations of thanks from most of the merchants and onlookers within the square.

* * *

The next day Naruto was walking towards the meeting place where he was meant to meet with Yoruichi. He was dressed the same way he was yesterday, except he was wearing a black ankle length trench coat that apparently was sold like 8 year olds wore it. Needless to say his hair stuck out against it but it worked with his mature-for-his-age attitude.

Naruto was surprised to realize that the place the they were meeting was outside the East Gate into Seireitei. Obviously Kisuke was right, Yoruichi wanted him to meet someone high up, either that our she wanted to show him off, or both. He sighed; although it would be good to see the cat/human again, he could probably have more productive ways to spend his time. He had been trying to limit how many Shadow Clones he was using, as the amount of Reiryoku he needed to use them would definitely be sensed within Seireitei. That would then consequently bring attention to him, and although he knew that a spirit having its memory of its past life wasn't exactly illegal, he was sure it would be frowned upon. He was able to use around five before the levels of Reiryoku emitted would become noticeably high. So far he had decided that he was going to have to give Kidō and Ninjutsu a break, and he would focus on subjects like Genjutsu and Fuuinjutsu, along with his Taijutsu and Kenjutsu.

The gatekeeper, whose name he learned was Kaiwan, was not very talkative, so Naruto was left to ponder silently until Yoruichi arrived, this time not trailed by the silent and seemingly strict Suì-Fēng. Naruto started in slight surprise when he realized that she had come out of a door that was built within the gate itself.

_"Wouldn't that just make it harder to defend?"_ He thought in slight confusion as he walked over to Yoruichi.

"Naruto! Awesome, you managed to find where you were meant to be going! Now, I can say this: Welcome to Seireitei! What? I've always wanted to say that," she added at his quizzical look.

"So, where are we going?" Naruto asked as they walked back into Seireitei, closing and locking the door behind them.

"We are going to meet with the family of one of the four Noble Houses, The Kuchiki Clan. They have a kid, Byakuya, who is only a few years older than you, gets angry at me all the time. It is very fun though, anyway, there is also Kuchiki Genrei, the current head, and his son Kuchiki Sōjun. Byakuya is his son, so he is the grandson of Genrei. There is also another daughter of Genrei, but she is centuries old and doesn't talk to anyone not part of her family. Naruto, are you all right?" Yoruichi explained before she saw Naruto's pale face.

"I met Kuchiki Sōjun yesterday," Naruto said briefly.

"What! How?" Yoruichi exclaimed, eyes wide.

And so Naruto explained what had happened in the marketplace in District 64 yesterday. Yoruichi smiled and told him that this might give him a good light with the Kuchiki, making Naruto scowl a little. Very soon afterwards they arrived in front of the Kuchiki Estate, where an elderly man was waiting at the gate.

"Kuchiki-dono," Yoruichi greeted.

"Shihōin-dono, I see that you have arrived," The old man returned before he regarded Naruto. "So, this is the person you wished for us to meet, Yoruichi?"

"Indeed, Genrei." Yoruichi said while Genrei continued regarding the boy.

"He has steel in his eyes, the eyes of a warrior," Genrei said before he turned away and led them towards the Kuchiki Family Manor. Naruto saw that two people were waiting at the door, one he knew was Sōjun, and the other he presumed was likely to be Byakuya.

Yoruichi and Genrei was discussing something from their roles as captains, so Naruto was left to look around the grounds as they walked towards the manor. He took in various things about each of the buildings he could see, such as nooks and crannies, apparent layouts, and defenses of each. He came to the obvious conclusion; the Kuchiki Manor was the place of most importance, and one could see it due to the layout of the entire Kuchiki compound revolved around it.

"Father, Shihōin-dono," Sōjun greeted for both himself and Byakuya, knowing how tempted Byakuya was to insult the Shihōin Clan Head. Genrei and Yoruichi bowed their heads in response, although everyone could see a small grin on Yoruichi's face.

"So, Byakuya-bo, how's life been?" Yoruichi asked, causing Byakuya to lose all sense of decorum.

"I can't stand you Cat-Demon," Byakuya snarled, but made no move to leave.

"Father, this is the same boy I talked about, the one that took down the thugs in District 64," Sōjun said, gesturing to Naruto, causing the eyes of the old man to flicker in surprise.

"Indeed? Well, then boy, what is your name?" Genrei said, looking down at the eight year old.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto replied shortly.

"Naruto, be polite," Yoruichi chided as they moved through the mansion to the back of the house. They were presented with some food and tea.

Over the course of the discussion Naruto became amused whenever Byakuya and Yoruichi had occasional glaring matches over the table.

"So, Naruto, how did you manage to beat those thugs?" Byakuya asked, curious as to how someone three years younger than him managing to defeat five fully grown men.

"Pure Hakuda, with Reiatsu coating my limbs to make sure that I wasn't hurt and hurting them more," Naruto answered, taking a sip of his tea.

"But you have obviously been trained. Those kicks and your movements were delivered with experience," Sōjun put in, and Naruto's eyes flickered to Yoruichi uncertainly before she nodded. Naruto sighed.

"It will be easier to show you. Can you each please put a hand on my head?" Naruto's request got him weird looks from the Kuchiki family members, but once Yoruichi did so they each did the same. Naruto then used his Reiryoku and pulled them into the same place as he had with Yoruichi the first time.

* * *

The five of them reappeared within the white matrix. Naruto and Yoruichi were calm, and although the two older Kuchiki appeared mostly calm, Naruto doubted they actually were.

"Where the hell are we?" Byakuya said, as he looked around and he saw endless white.

"This is a space in my mindscape that I developed to allow people to view my memories so I can give them information. Naruto waved his hand and the TV that he had used with Yoruichi's first experience of this appeared, along with five chairs set around it in a semicircle. The five of them sat down and Naruto loaded up the CD, and Naruto's began to run.

"I was born on the tenth of October, around forty years ago in the city of Konohagakure, or the Village Hidden in the Leaves…"

* * *

Naruto finally finished, and he could see that the two older Kuchiki were deep in thought, and Byakuya was mesmerized. Naruto had had to stop the video several times to explain concepts and the like.

"That's despicable, creating child-soldiers," Sōjun finally commented.

"There have been worse cases, Kakashi, my sensei, was born just before the start of the Third Shinobi War. He trained to be the best he could, and was out on the field, killing enemies and fighting with the other soldiers at the age of five. Our society was one where violent victory was celebrated, because although many sought peace, no one wanted to compromise with the enemy, they wanted their peace through destruction. There was no space for coexistence. And those from civilian families can choose to not become shinobi, but those from the clans typically did for the honor of their families. It was an endless cycle of hatred," Naruto said, admitting that the society he had once been a part of had been very brutal compared to this one.

"So you're actually a child with the memories of around 43 years of warfare and battle," Byakuya asked, not able to comprehend such a phenomenon. Naruto just nodded.

"This Ninjutsu, can you still do it with Reiatsu rather than chakra?" Genrei asked.

"Yes, some are inadaptable, but most are, the same with Genjutsu and Fuuinjutsu. For example I can use my Rasengan with Reiatsu," Naruto said, forming an emerald green orb in his right hand.

"What does that do?" Byakuya asked, looking at the orb. Naruto smirked, creating a human shaped dummy with a wave of his hand. He jammed the Rasengan into the dummy, and it grinded its way through the dummy. He pulled away to let the others see a jagged hole carved straight through the dummy.

"Also, due to my experience with Ninjutsu, I had to get familiar with shaping the Reiryoku within my body a similar way that I did with chakra to achieve the same effect. The good effect this has is that it allows me to only use an incantation for Kidō a few times, taking note of how the Reiryoku and subsequent Reiatsu is shaped each time, and then I can do it again without the incantation. This, obviously, gives me an advantage in battle," Naruto spoke, and the others were shocked at the implications.

"Naruto, if you could teach people how to do this, it would eliminate the barrier between a master of Kidō and amateurs," Yoruichi spoke up.

"Which is why I shall only teach it to those I know I can trust," Naruto replied. "Anyway, we should go back to the outside world, but a bit of warning, which Yoruichi already knows, having experienced it before, is that when I cancel this technique, you shall feel extreme nausea," Naruto continued.

"Oh joy," was all Sōjun was able to say before they fell themselves being pulled out of the matrix.

* * *

"Urgh, how can you stand the repercussions of that thing?" Yoruichi groaned as she held her head.

"Through lots of practice using that technique. I was only extremely nauseous afterwards for the first twenty times though," Naruto said calmly.

"What a ghastly technique," Sōjun said as he rested his head on the table. Genrei just sat silently with his eyes closed,

Byakuya tried to stand up too early and staggered, almost crashing into a wall before Naruto managed to steady him. Byakuya sat down, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. Naruto left them to recover, going over to one side of the clear field behind the Manor, and that was in front of where they had just been dining. He picked a bokken that was a simple piece of straight hardened wood, meant to represent a chokuto.

Naruto had become attached to the chokuto he had used when he was fighting in the Fourth Shinobi War; it had been the same chokuto used by Sasuke when he had joined Orochimaru. Sasuke had given it to him as he lay dying on the remains of a battlefield in the Land of Lightning, when he had finally realized the full extent of Madara's madness. He had proceeded to turn against the ancient Uchiha, but had been defeated, a massive blasted through he stomach. Later that same chokuto had claimed the life of Kabuto, but in his next fight against Madara, the bastard said he wasn't worthy of it and had destroyed it. However ever since then a chokuto was his weapon of choice.

He picked up one more appropriate for his size, deducing that the Kuchiki probably started their weapon training earlier than most to make it instinctive. He then proceeded to go to the center of the field and began to flow through forms, moving with the grace and balance of someone with experience, each swing measured exactly and controlled to precision.

* * *

Byakuya started to regain the precision of his normal vision, and as he did so he watched Naruto practice with the mini-bokken. It was clear to him that Naruto, even while being in a smaller form and lacking his previous body still handled the chokuto with ease. Byakuya stood up slowly to make sure he still wasn't under the effects of the nausea, and walked over to the side of the field, grabbing a bokken in the shape of an average katana.

"Uzumaki, may I have a Zanjutsu spar with you?" Byakuya asked formally. He heard his father about to decline for him but Naruto interceded.

"Sure, after all, it will help fix up some gaps, but seriously, just call me Naruto," Naruto said, setting himself in a stance. Byakuya moved towards him quickly, his bokken swishing in a downward strike. Naruto just moved to one side, letting the head of the bokken thud down into the dirt, before he planted a foot into Byakuya's chest, pushing him back.

"Don't think this will be any easier for you just because I am smaller. I was shorter than most of my opponent's in my past life, and the difference was about the same. If you don't come at me with the intent to kill this spar has no point," Naruto said, eyes narrowed at the youngest noble.

Byakuya moved towards him again, his bokken now hissing with the speed it was swung. Naruto, instead of blocking it head on deflected it by raising his bokken in a steep slant. As Byakuya went by him, having put all his weight behind the blow, Naruto brought his bokken down lightly on his wrist, before he spun, crouching as he did so and doing the same to the back of Byakuya's left leg. Byakuya stumbled before he regained his balance and grinned, charging towards the eight year old once more.

* * *

Half an hour later, Byakuya was walking slowly over to the group of three older nobles, his body covered in the appearance of light bruises. Naruto was trailing behind him, a slight upturning of his lips showing amusement.

"God, I was an idiot to charge in like that wasn't I?" Byakuya groaned as he sat down.

"Yeah, if you are going to do that, then you need to be fast enough to be able to bring your sword back to cover you. In short, don't do that against opponents who are definitely faster than you, otherwise you will lose very quickly," Naruto said, as he sat down calmly.

"So we know you're going to ace the Zanjutsu, Hakuda and Kidō courses in the academy, but what about Hoho?" Sōjun asked, smiling a little.

"That's covered; Yoruichi taught me Shunpo while in the mortal world, and I almost have it mastered. I have a method that let's me learn things around fifty times faster than a regular being. Or I can use that same method to learn several different things at the same time," Naruto said.

"What is it? Please tell me!" Byakuya begged, as he held Naruto by his lapels.

"Hahaha, sorry, but it's a secret," Naruto said, chuckling.

"Oh, Genrei, if you and your family could keep this a secret from those we haven't told, the only other two being Uruhara and Suì-Fēng, I would appreciate it. I want to see their faces when the captains are watching the entrance exams!" Yoruichi said, as she and Naruto left.

"Goodbye Nii-san!" Naruto shouted to Byakuya and was out of the gate before the older boy could respond, although they could hear Yoruichi laughing.

"Father, would Byakuya and I be able to come along the academy entrance exams as well?" Sōjun asked. Genrei snorted quietly and sighed.

* * *

A month and a Half later, an announcement was put up in each of the districts that there would be the next Entrance Exam held in two weeks. Entrees would gather in front of each of the main gates into Seireitei, depending on where they were from, and then be escorted from there by an Academy instructor to the Academy itself. There the trials would be held, and then the entrees would be sent back for a week, waiting for news of their success or not. If they did then they would go to the Academy for the next four years.

Naruto snorted in contempt when he saw what the six trials were. You had to choose at least two examinations and show passing skills in them to qualify along with the compulsory exams. For example: One could choose the Kidō, Hakuda and the Reiryoku and Academic exams were compulsory, leaving Zanjutsu and Hoho for learning in the academy. If they got passing grades in the four examinations they did then they would qualify, but they would be put into a lower grade set rather than the top 'prodigy' class. To qualify for that class one had to get above average scores for four and an average for a fifth of the trials.

_"Obviously graduates are affected in their placement by this method. It shows they're more interested in certain subjects, which means they would probably do better in those areas,"_ Naruto thought.

**"Yes well, which ones are you going to take?" **Kurama said.

_"All of them,"_ Naruto replied smugly.

**"Show off,"** Kurama commented. Kurama had talked to Naruto for the first time since coming to Soul Society about two weeks ago. He stated that being bound to Naruto's soul was a very different feeling from what he had imagined and he had taken the first month in Soul Society just getting used to the feeling.

Mind you, the Bijuu had been able to supply Naruto with the memories he had been missing for the five months in between Yoruichi leaving in the Living World and his own death. Needless, to say, Naruto was annoyed at himself for not dispatching that damned Hollow for efficiently.

Naruto had been busy training for the past month and a half, adapting his Kenjutsu and Taijutsu styles for his smaller body, knowing that he was probably going to be stuck with it for a reasonable amount of time, considering that people aged slower in this world than in the living world. Naruto had also subtly been increasing his levels of Reiryoku over this time. And had reached the border in between a Vice-Captain and a Captain level of Reiryoku. It seemed that the same thing that had happened with his chakra happened with his Reiryoku due to Kurama, although at least now he was able to mask it a lot better. Naruto kept his natural output of Reiryoku to around a fifth seat Shinigami, unwilling to draw any unnecessary attention until the Academy Entrance Exams.

Naruto had also spent quite some time within the Kuchiki compound, to have spars with Byakuya. Sōjun would escort Naruto from the East Gate to the compound before he went off with his duties. Naruto had begun teaching the eleven year old Kuchiki how to do Kage Bunshin, but he wasn't having much success so far, due to the control and sheer amount of Reiryoku needed, and eventually Naruto had to tell him that he would teach him later. He wouldn't have time to teach him about control and the like while in the academy.

Naruto had received his package of clothes that he had ordered. He had black combat boots and trousers, a light grey shirt and a black vest with a hood. The collar of the vest had on one side the swirl of the Uzumaki sewn on in orange. Naruto had requested that pieces of flexible leather be sewn into the vest and pants, giving him some protection, but not so much that he couldn't move and fight properly. He had received a new set of fingerless gloves, these being more of a tan color with pieces of dark brown here and there, and the gloves were built out of more durable material than his former ones had been. All in all he was wearing almost full black apart from his gloves, the Uzumaki insignia, and of course, his hair, which was looking more like his father's. Unfortunately he had to cut it occasionally, as he didn't have a headband to keep it out of his eyes.

* * *

Two weeks later Naruto was waiting in front of the East Gate along with around twenty-five others, many of whom were a few years older than him. However they had decided early to keep away from him, the dark, utilitarian clothes and serious attitude creeping them out slightly when it was combined with the only slightly childish face. Naruto sat on a rock reading a book, ignoring all the looks and whispers. However he put the small book away within one of his pockets when he heard the Academy Instructor over.

"Okay brats, get over and follow me! I need to check whether you people are actually old enough to attempt to join the Academy! Form a single file and get your papers ready to be inspected." The instructor barked.

He walked down the row inspecting each of the papers, and then he reached Naruto towards the end.

"Huh, a shorty, well I suppose you are old enough, as your papers say that you're nine. When was your birthday kid?" The instructor asked.

"Two days ago," Naruto answered, showing not a flicker of fear.

"Hm, you got guts kid, joining the Academy so early," was all the instructor said before he continued down the line.

"Alright, kids, everything checks out. My name is Ōnobara Gengorō, and I am currently the chief instructor for Class #1, that is to say the advanced class," Gengorō said before they set off. Gengorō lead them through the Seireitei, explaining how the various divisions worked, and pointing out places they would be working often as Shinigami. Naruto looked around the place along with the others, for although he had been in the Seireitei many times by now, he had only gone to the Kuchiki Compound each time and wasn't able to get so close to the bulk of Seireitei before.

"Anyway, this is the Shin'ō Academy, formerly known as the Shinigami Academy, but the name changed when graduates started being accepted into the Kidō Corps and the Omnitsukidō," Gengorō said as the group stopped briefly outside the entrance to the courtyard in front of a massive building making up the other three sides of said courtyard.

"This is where you shall be studying for the next four years if you pass the Entrance trials, and also sleeping, eating and relaxing. This is a boarding school, you will not be able to go back home everyday and talk with your mother." The instructor continued as they stepped through the gates.

Gengorō explained that each of them had to fill out sheets of paper giving some background information, along with their names and which trials they wanted to try and complete. Naruto was the first to hand his in.

"So you want to try every trial, brat?" The bulky instructor asked, and Naruto just nodded in response. Gengorō went and put Naruto's information sheet in a small bin with a 'U' on it, obviously signifying alphabetical order. Eventually everyone else did the same, but no one else had the letter 'U' or anything after that as the first letter of their last names, and thus Naruto ended up being the last person when they were told to line up in alphabetical order of last names.

"Alright, today is the Academic and Reiryoku Exams, which are both compulsory, so, while we wait for everyone else, we will go into the Reiryoku examination room." Gengorō stated, leading them from the courtyard.

Over the next hour and half Naruto and the others from East Rukongai waited as the other three groups came in at different times. Naruto had examined the room when they had first come in and had seen the long panel that spanned the wide width of the room above the door they had entered from. He knew from the annoying feeling of being watched that the captains were behind there.

* * *

"Hmph, that blonde brat in the black off to the left there can tell he's being watched," Mugurama Kensei, Captain of the Ninth Division, commented as he and the other Captains of the Gotei 13 looked down on the entrees. Some of them had also brought their Vice-Captains along, but not many.

"Ooh, do you mean Whiskers, Captain?" Kensei's Vice-Captain, Kuna Mashiro, piped up.

"I'm not going to ask why you're calling him that," Kensei sighed.

"Mind you, he looks young, but at the same time he looks very confident," Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi, Captain of the Third Division and better known as 'Rose', said.

* * *

"Alright, now that we are finally all here, we will begin by testing the levels of Reiryoku everyone has. If you fail here, your examination is over and you will be declined entrance into the Academy. You may come back another time if you wish, for it has happened before that it is simply people being unable to access their Reiryoku. But for this time, if you fail, you're out," Gengorō stated. He then continued:

"We will be going in groups by Rukongai Compass, therefore it shall be South, West, North, East. What you will do when your name is called, is you will step up to the podium, place your hand on this orb, and channel as much of your Reiryoku as possible. The judge, will receive the reading, and note it down. If you fail, you will be told and sent off to another room."

Naruto groaned, he knew that the bastard had probably set it up to make it annoying, but now he would be going last out of everyone.

* * *

"So, who is the blonde?" Hirako Shinji, Captain of the Fifth Division, asked Yoruichi, who had just found his report file.

"Name is Uzumaki Naruto, turned 9 two days ago. There is a recorded incident two months ago where he was involved; in said incident he took down five full grown men with Hakuda when a group of seven men and Marejirōsaburō Ōmaeda were beating up an innocent merchant in District 64. Before the last two men could do anything Ōmaeda and they were arrested," Yoruichi read.

"Now that is impressive," Shinji, turning back to watching the exam with renewed interest.

* * *

Naruto had pulled out a book to read while he was waiting. He occasionally looked up when there was an unusually strong level of Reiryoku being shown, but apart from that, read quietly.

"Now, onto those from East Rukongai," Gengorō announced, making Naruto sit up slightly, before relaxing again. Many among his group had acceptable levels of Reiryoku, but most didn't have anything impressive.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Gengorō called.

Naruto wandered vaguely up to the podium, nose still buried in his book. When he reached the orb, he leisurely put his book away, sighing softly as he did, causing Gengorō to gain a tick-mark on his brow.

"Hurry it up, lazy!" Gengorō called. Naruto just yawned in response before putting his hand on the orb and beginning to channel his Reiryoku.

The room stopped, as Naruto began to pump out a level of Reiryoku that was about that of a high Vice-Captain, almost Low Captain.

"His Reiryoku reads as 1525, which is just below the level of a Low Captain," Gengorō announced, pleased that someone from East Rukongai had outshone everyone else.

* * *

"That shouldn't be possible, not at his age," Ukitake Jūshirō, Captain of the Thirteenth Division, said as he looked down in shock with the other captains. Naruto had just emitted a level of Reiryoku rivaling that of their Vice-Captains.

"Well…Shit," Sarukagi Hiyori, the Vice-Captain of Twelfth Division said, not really knowing how to put her thoughts into words. They watched on as the entrees, of which there were about eighty-five remaining out of the original one hundred and seven, filed out into the courtyard to wait as the room was set up for the Academic exam. All of them soon turned to the other side of the viewing room which presented the same non-see-through glass to the outside, allowing them to watch the entrees as they were treated to some food, as it was around lunchtime. Each of the captains were watching some of the kids that displayed personalities close to what their divisions represented, but each kept an eye on Naruto. The blonde had taken the food given to him before walking over to a bench in one corner of the courtyard, before he proceeded to start sniffing the food.

"What is he doing?" Mashiro asked, unable to work out why he was doing that. She looked over when she heard the smothering of laughter, as did many of the other Captains.

"He- he's checking to make sure it isn't poisoned!" Yoruichi said before breaking out into laughter, making everyone sweat-drop or face-palm.

"Why do I get the feeling you know this kid fairly well, Yoruichi?" Kyōraku Shunsui, the Captain of the Eighth Division asked, causing Yoruichi to stop laughing.

"It will be easier to explain if he is there at the same time," Yoruichi said, causing the eyes of the Captain-Commander and Captain of the First Division, Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, to narrow slightly. But he didn't say anything.

* * *

Half an hour later when the Captains and company had been fed and watered, food having been brought to them the same time as the entrees, they gave Gengorō the signal to bring the kids back in for the next Exam. This was the Academic exam, and the second of the two compulsory exams that the entrees had to take part in.

"Alright, brats, time to get back inside, leave the rubbish inside these two bags here and then move into the examination room," Gengorō stated.

"You all have assigned seats, this is a written exam that will test your knowledge in General Studies, History, The Gotei 13 and finally, the best part, the final section is a number of theoretical battle situations that you have to come up with strategies to overcome. Find your seats," Gengorō said.

* * *

That night The Gotei 13 Captains were sitting in a meeting, talking of the members they had seen in the Examinations so far that had caught their interests.

"That Uzumaki kid is scarily good so far, I mean he started off by shocking everyone with his Reiryoku level. That caught Gengorō's attention and he decided to grade Uzumaki's paper first, and he revealed that he had gotten full marks on it. He had even conceived several strategies for the last section which no one thought of until they saw his explanation," Shiba Isshin, the Captain of the Tenth Division, said to the room at large.

"Indeed, from what I saw of his strategies, he thinks more like a military general than an operative. He shows good reasoning and logic behind each decision and provided several outcomes for different situations," Hikifune Kirio, The Captain of the Twelfth Division, said.

"Mind you there were several other people amongst the entrees that had good potential," Shinji said, not one to talk about one person for an entire day.

"True," Rose agreed.

* * *

The next day, Naruto rose early in the dormitory provided for the boys among the entrees. He got dressed in his clothes once again before he jumped out of the window to the courtyard. The dormitory was one the first floor, so it wasn't such a big deal. He began to do the warm up he had been doing when he was training with Might Gai for Taijutsu in the early stages of the Fourth Shinobi War.

He began with pushups and squats, trying get his limbs working before he moved on to his Taijutsu Katas.

At nine o'clock that morning Gengorō came in and told those who were doing Hakuda and Hoho to get moving for breakfast, and had to shout the same thing out the window to Naruto.

Naruto snorted when he came to the breakfast hall they were using; there were only about forty kids in total going for either Hakuda or Hoho or both. Around twenty five boys including himself and fifteen girls.

_"Don't the others recognize the potential use of either of these two disciplines? I mean, what use is having a sword when you're too slow to hit the enemy?" _Naruto thought, perplexed.

**"Hell, don't ask me, you humans are much to illogical for your own good," **Kurama replied.

"I'm a soul now, no longer human," Naruto thought back.

**"Same thing,"** Kurama responded and, before Naruto could say anything more, fell asleep.

Naruto just sat down and had his breakfast, ignoring the fact that no one seemed to want to talk to him.

"Alright, those for the Hoho exams, let's move to the exam room," Gengorō called, and Naruto rose, joined by twenty-one others from the forty-three that had been there.

The exam went by pretty quickly due to the small number of entrees taking it, and Naruto was called up reasonably quickly.

"Alright Naruto, you know the drill, try and get to the line over there under five seconds," Gengorō spoke, indicating a line one hundred meters away from Naruto.

"Three, two, one, Go!" Gengorō announced, starting the timer. His eyes flickered up from the timer control, to see Naruto turning on the spot, before he disappeared. Naruto reappeared leaning against the wall on the other side of the far line.

Gengorō sighed; he knew that this feeling wasn't going to go away, a feeling reflected by the Captains watching from the room above. The feeling of knowing that Naruto is way too good for these current exam requirements.

* * *

"Alright, those for Hakuda!" Gengorō called, and twenty four students came over from where they had been practicing in the courtyard. They filed in and saw that the edge of the room was lined with the students not taking the exam.  
"For this exam, each of you will be sparring with an academy instructor, except for Naruto," Gengorō spoke, smirking when he gained shocked looks from the room.

"A Captain has requested that you spar four of us…at once." Gengorō finished smirking, but the smirk slipped off when he saw that Naruto had just shrugged and returned to reading.

"All right first spar, Tarengo against Instructor Mansen…."

Naruto however, was getting uneasy, obviously someone was either annoyed at his constant success, or Yoruichi had slipped up. It was most likely the second option, and he turned his head and glared up at where he knew the captains were watching. He then put the book away and began to study each of the instructors fighting styles.

"Naruto, get up here! Now, you have been given permission to use anything you want apart from Zanjutsu or Kidō. And the Captain wrote no Ninjutsu or Genjutsu either," Gengorō spoke as four of the Academy instructors descended to the floor. Naruto cursed.

Naruto stood opposite the four instructors.

"Begin!" Two of the Instructors moved forward immediately while the other two followed at a more sedate pace. Naruto waited for them to come to him, and then when one of the instructors moved into motion. He grabbed the punch, twisted it around so the man was leaning back, before using his leg to sweep the instructor's legs from behind, causing the instructor to fall to the ground. He then charged a bit of Reiatsu to his index finger and touched it to the man's temple, knocking him out.

Naruto was forced to roll away to avoid being kicked. He turned to see the second of the two instructors that had raced towards him. He blocked the man's frontal kick before spinning around and jumping up, sending his heel thudding into the back of the man's head, knocking him out.

Naruto watched as one of the remaining two instructors charged at him full speed, going for an attempt to bowl him over using sheer speed and size. Naruto went with the motion, halfway through pressing a heel to the instructor's chest, pushing the instructor over with him to take the fall. He slipped out of his opponent's grasp before knocking the instructor out by sending a burst of Reiatsu through his temple. He then jumped up to face the last man.

The instructor regarded Naruto warily as the two of them cautiously moved towards each other, and the boy could see that the man was no longer underestimating him. Naruto knew that this time he would have to try something unexpected to put his opponent of balance, and seeing that he had primarily used his legs so far, using his hands would be preferable. However he knew that his opponent would not do the same as the others and put all his weight behind his attacks, having learned from the examples of his peers, which made taking advantage of a gap would be harder.

_"I will use short flurries of attacks, obvious at first, which will speed up eventually. I will combine this with short but efficient use of Shunpo to keep him guessing where I am coming from. Then, when he seems to start getting the gist of it, I will use my old tricks of leg sweeps, which he will miss, having expected hand attacks. Unfortunately the entire plan is based on me staying on the offensive,"_ Naruto thought, getting ever closer to the instructor.

Then Naruto burst into action, doing as he had planned, with the exception that he left out the use of Shunpo for the repositioning of his attack. Most of his jabs and punches were blocked, but some inevitably got through, making it even harder for the instructor to focus.

Eventually Naruto was able to land a solid hit on his opponent's stomach, winding him and causing him to double over. Naruto just decided to go to hell with his initial plan and brought his knee up into the instructor's face, before tapping his temple with yet another burst of Reiatsu.

Gengorō was now fairly sure that Naruto was either just trying to piss him off or make him look bad as he gave the kid the highest possible passing grade, again.

* * *

The next day was taken up with purely Kidō exams, although thankfully the instructors didn't insist on them taking the exam each one at a time. They had them going in groups of five. Naruto watched the exam as one of the instructors gave each group information on how to perform a basic Shakkahō. They would then be allowed to practice each for five times before they would perform the Kidō attack for their exam.

Although they had a higher number of people taking the exam at the same time, they were slowed by the fact that no one appeared to have listened to the instructor while they were waiting for their turn. Therefore each time the instructor had to repeat what he had said to the group that had just finished. Around lunchtime the first instructor broke, calling in a replacement to take his position while he went away from the endless explanations of a single basic Kidō move.

Due to the now uneven number of entrees from East Rukongai, Naruto was called out as the last Kidō examination of the day with only two others.

"Alright, the spell you shall be demonstrating to show your ability to use Kidō in the exam is called Shakkahō. It is a basic offensive spell used by many Shinigami, well versed in Kidō or not. The incantation is: 'Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!'. Use this before you use the spell to give it a good amount of power," The instructor said in a monologue. He then proceeded to show them how to charge Reiatsu to their hands before sending them off to practice their allocated five times.

Naruto downplayed his skill while he was practicing, wondering if anyone would feel a small amount of relief that he apparently wasn't brilliant at everything. The three of them were called to the center of the exam room, seeing three target dummies set up against a far wall.

"Alright, we you will attempt to cause as much damage as you can to the dummy you are standing in front of using only the spell you were just taught," Gengorō said, voice lightening up a bit for the first time in many hours at the prospect of this being the final showcase for the day.

The first of the three sent his Shakkahō towards the dummy causing a fair amount of damage to his dummy's left shoulder. The second, a girl and the one standing next to Naruto, sent her spell towards the dummy easily, causing a fair amount of damage to its legs. Then Naruto stepped up and the room hushed.

Naruto had become known as something of a prodigy, as he had been given top marks in every single exam he had entered so far, and most of the watchers, hidden or not, had rather high expectations of him in this exam. Naruto just pointed his right index finger at the dummy opposite him, before he muttered quietly.

"Hadō #31. Shakkahō," was heard by the room, even though he had said it quietly. A small orb of red, flame-like Reiatsu, formed just in front of the tip of his pointed finger. A beam of energy blasted from the small orb and shot into the dummy, covering the view what had happened for a moment. Then everyone recovered and saw a hole about the size of a golf ball straight through the dummies head, and if one looked inside they would see the wooden interior of the dummy slowly beginning to crumble away from the heat.

* * *

"Ah! Goddammit, I was hoping he was no good at Kidō! Why did he look so bad when he was preparing?" Hiyori shouted loudly with a tick-mark on her brow within the viewing room. They watched as Naruto turned and blew some smoke off of the tip of his finger.

"He's so going to regret that," Shinji stated, and was immediately proved right when a bunch of girls moved to mob Naruto, revealing a newly created society of fangirls.

Naruto took one look at the approaching girls and got out of there, using his Shunpo to escape the horde.

* * *

The next day it was declared that Naruto could rest in, as the examiners and instructors had decided, along with the Gotei 13 Captains, to stretch the course of the Zanjutsu exam over two days. This would allow for some more interesting spars between academy instructors and entrees to the exam as they fought one another with bokken.

Naruto wisely spent the time sleeping in before he decided he was bored and decided to see if he could gain access to the viewing room that the Captains were surely using.

Naruto was forced to return back to the examination room to watch some of the other Zanjutsu entrees after being caught by Yoruichi. His curiosity unsatisfied, Naruto sulked in the corner of the large room as he pulled his book out.

_"Well, at least I will be able to vent my boredom on an instructor tomorrow afternoon!"_ Naruto thought gleefully, causing a shiver of horror to suddenly rise up the spine of every single instructor within the room.

**_"I'm not sure that my container's ever been completely sane, but this just takes scary to a whole new level,"_** Kurama thought idly as he sat within his cage.

* * *

It was the final day of the exams, and at the end it would be announced who among them had managed to qualify for the #1 class. Naruto was excited about none of this however; as he watched the remainder of the Zanjutsu exams, back to his quiet but confident self. Naruto was considering different types of chokuto bokken that he could choose from the rack off from one side of the exam room. Some were of different weights, while some were slightly shorter than others, and others were made with different types of grip. Naruto just sighed before he chose the one that seemed to be fairly good in both length and weight. It was a straight stick of carved hardwood, with bandages wrapped around the blunt end to signify and create a handle.

"Uzumaki!" Gengorō called, and Naruto looked up to see an instructor waiting for him in the center of the room, obviously waiting for him so they could spar.

"Aw, only one? But having only one enemy makes it too easy! Give me something to play with here!" Naruto whined, causing Gengorō to get angry and order another of the instructors into the center. Naruto nodded approvingly before he moved to the center of the room, opposite the two men facing him, and bowed in respect for their spar.

Naruto settled into his stance, his feet making a letter 'L' shape, and his bokken held out in front of him, tip pointed down and forward, creating a slant. The instructors looked at him before they both blurred away, drawing their own bokken as they did so and smashing them into Naruto's. Naruto slipped his sword off to one side, going with the motion as he did so, deflecting the strike of one of the instructors and quickly moving to interrupt the blow of the second. Naruto pushed the man's bokken off to one side, forcing him off balance, and Naruto quickly mimed out the act of killing the man, making him know he was out of the fight. He nodded and moved back, allowing the second instructor to face Naruto on his own.

The instructor knew that he could no longer afford to underestimate the small blonde, and moved forward cautiously, his bokken held in a neutral stance in front of him to allow him to both attack and defend. The instructor threw a few feints at Naruto, hoping to make him move, but was surprised when Naruto just watched the feints contemptuously, not even bothering to show a reaction.

"How did you know that those were feints?" The instructor asked, curious.

"I have realized that most Shinigami follow a set standard style for many of their fighting skills until their Shikai is released. I have seen this style in action while watching the other Zanjutsu exams, and I saw that most of you put almost all your weight behind a blow when you intend for it to hit. However when you started feinting, I could see that you weren't, therefore I knew those were feints," Naruto stated, shrugging. All those listening, especially those with more experience, were stunned at the potential implications of Naruto's words.

"Anyway, even if you do try and start switching your fighting style in the middle of a spar, I will win, because I know all your tricks," Naruto stated confidently, before he disappeared in blur.

The instructor felt a small fist impact his stomach, and he folded in half from the sheer force behind it. He felt the blonde's bokken hit the back of his knees sharply, causing him to crash into his knees in the center of the outlined arena. Naruto reappeared, his bokken held just above the neck of the defeated instructor in an execution stance.

"Surrender," Naruto's voice held evidence of a will of steel. The instructor just nodded in assent, signaling his surrender, and the persona that Naruto had been exuding vanished.

Meanwhile Gengorō was struggling not to scream in utter exasperation at Naruto's evident skills. He had been driven to the edge of annoyance by the actions of this kid.

Meanwhile the Captains and Vice-Captains were watching the smiling blonde in the center of the exam room warily. They saw a bit of Naruto's character in that last stance, and what they had seen had set alarm bells ringing within each of their heads.

"Well, we shall be sending you the results of your entrance exams into the Shin'ō Academy. In the meantime you shall return to your homes, and prepare to leave it soon," Gengorō announced, watching as the other instructors escorted the entrees out of Seireitei. He knew that at least half of them wouldn't attain the necessary results.


End file.
